$13.33mn flood mitigation project for five districts

The Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) is going to implement a project titled "Extended Community Climate Change Project-Flood", financed by the Green Climate Fund.

The four-year project will help enhance flood resilience in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Gaibandha and Jamalpur.

The $13.33 million project will benefit directly 90,000 and indirectly 1 lakh people in the northeastern and northern districts of the country, speakers at a workshop on the project said on Thursday.            

"The government is committed to building poverty-free Bangladesh by 2041. But one of the major challenges of the goal is climate change effects," Fatima Yasmin, secretary to the Economic Relations Division (ERD), told the workshop as the chief guest. 

She said flooding engulfs nearly 26,000 square kilometres of Bangladesh every year. Terming the project a time-befitting one, the secretary said the government is giving special attention to climate change in its development plan.     

Citing several government measures to deal with the climate change, Director General of the Department of Environment Dr AKM Rafique Ahammed said Bangladesh has to spend at least 1 percent of its gross-domestic product (GDP) to tackle climate change effects. 

Dr Ahammed, as the special guest at the workshop, stressed mitigation measures apart from dealing with climate change effects.  

PKSF Chairman Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said climate change effects on the marginalised people and their losses were more than those of the national estimation.

He emphasised enhancing people's resilience towards climate change and coordinated approach to the topic.     

Meantime, PKSF Managing Director Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah commented that Bangladesh tops in the climate change vulnerable country list. He said the Green Climate Fund project would help enhance the resilience of the climate change vulnerable groups in Bangladesh.